Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Students in PC, Yearbook, and StuCo were surprised to find that their long-anticipated retreats were abruptly cancelled, without much explanation. Initially, they were pretty disappointed, but now, the students realize that their trips were cancelled for a very good set of reasons.
School has restarted with activities underway for many clubs, classes and organizations. Peer Counsellors, StuCo members, and Yearbookers were all eager to retreat into the woods for some much-needed networking. Students were ready for a classic camp trip filled with classic camp activities — spreadsheets, to-do lists, calendars, etc. But this year, those happy campers were not so happy because their trips mysteriously vanished before they could hit the buses. But there are good reasons for these last-minute quick cancellations. The school board heard that some pretty scary stuff was going on in these camps, so they had to shoot down these trips before they went south. Here are those stories.
Photo Credit: Loon Lake Lodge/Retreat Centre
StuCo - Loon Lake Resident Evil
Our student council was looking for an escape not too far into the woods at Raccoon Lake Lodge. This luxury corporate retreat is nestled in tall trees and crystal waters, but it wasn't as far from the city as they thought. In fact, it was awfully close to Raccoon City. The last group of corporate retreaters to stop by the lodge were greeted with a spooked start to their trip, when a strange woman ran out in front of their bus at the camp entrance. They transported the woman into the camp grounds to get her medical help, but before they knew it, something evil was spreading through their group. The only medical help able to reach them was a lone medical courier. He entered the campsite and was never heard from again. If you arrive at the camp now, you’d better hope that you're lucky enough to escape the tangle of limbs and tentacles that rolls around the grounds. Don't be fooled. Watch out for the dog, too.
Photo Credit: Metro Vancouver
Yearbook Retreat - Camp Capilano Backrooms
Yearbookers opted for Camp Capilano this year. A smaller building, just a dorm with a kitchen, would have been perfect for bringing together the hardworking staffers in their efforts to design the book. Away from Hamber yet still firmly in the city, it seemed the building would be safe, but little did they know that what the camp lacks in acres, it makes up for in some secret square footage. Long ago, a student slipped away during a game of hide-and-seek, crawling through a little crack in the timber walls, only to find themselves in a new area of the building they hadn't seen before. This room was different from the rest of the wooden cabins. This place had yellow wallpaper and stained carpets and buzzing fluorescent lights. The student wandered the seemingly endless hallways in search of an exit, before they realized they might not be alone in this labyrinth. The student was never seen again, as if they had slipped through the wall and disappeared. The trip ended swiftly, and the camp was boarded up and then swarmed by men in yellow hazmat suits.
Photo Credit: Willow Springs Camp
P.C. - Obsession
The purple-shirted seniors who make up Hamber’s Peer Counsellors were looking for their own team bonding getaway to Camp Willow. This camp was actually pretty nice, with no secret rooms or unknown outbreaks. But the camp had its own set of frights, this time coming from the staff. The veteran campers will all tell you to stay away from the old cafeteria lady, for it seems she's a little too protective of the camp. Some might say it's her obsession. People say that she was once a camper too, and that she loved it more than anything else in the world, so much so that she wished she would never have to leave. But it seems like this wish was more rooted in reality than she thought. And so she stays, working away at the camp. She works day and night, cleaning the grounds and cooking all the food. The campers will warn you not to step out of line, and they swear that the food at Camp Willow is more questionable than most camp food. Ever since the camp's cat went missing, every hot dog seems more…feline.
So before you pout about the cancellation of your much-anticipated trip, think about how you have been saved from the terrors and tortures that awaited you on your escape in the woods.